John Cena return: How WWE was able to get AEW stars to celebrate his 20-year career

WWE celebrated the legendary career of John Cena on Monday Night Raw last night, 20 years to the day after his debut.

Cena featured in several backstage segments during the show, notably with Seth Rollins and Theory, before stepping into the ring to deliver an emotional promo.

During the promo, Cena said that he doesn’t know when he’s going to wrestle again, which you can read more about by clicking here.

As well as having Cena mix it up with the current roster, WWE had several former stars appear to speak about their memories of the 16-time World Champion.

The likes of Stone Cold Steve Austin, Kurt Angle and Shawn Michaels appeared in a video package to speak about Cena, his legacy and their memories of working with him.

Fans noticed that featuring in the video packages, the first of which you can see above, was Chris Jericho, Daniel Bryan and Big Show.

All three men are now part of the AEW roster, and given the relationship between the two companies, it was surprising to many to see them used in this way.

And now, courtesy of Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Select, we know how the deal to have Bryan, Jericho and Big Show submit videos for the show came to be.

The report explains that the idea was pitched by people within WWE, when Tony Khan then being approached to give permission for the videos to be submitted.

Tony was okay with things, given the nature of the videos, and granted permission for WWE to use “virtually everyone” that they wanted for the video packages:

We’re told that the situation was very straightforward in making it happen. The idea was pitched, and then AEW founder Tony Khan was contacted in order to see if he’d be okay with it. Given the circumstances surrounding the videos, he was said to be okay with